Ancestral weather

 

It's autumn on the West Coast. The sunny days of summer are over and we're heading into days, weeks, probably months of relentless rain. I've become used to the rhythms of the seasons in the years I've lived here. I also have a roof over my head and a furnace to keep me warm but in the past people were often more directly affected by the weather. 

Just think of the farmers and fishermen in your family line. They and their livelihoods would have been directly impacted by weather events where they were living, whether it was the cumulative result of weeks of rain or drought, or a disastrous weather event. Even city dwellers could be adversely affected by larger events. I know this well, having written about my grandfather's brush with the Regina Cyclone. But I wouldn't have know about that weather event if someone in a class that I was attending years ago hadn't brought it up.

After that I was able to find more information by looking at historic newspapers for the cyclone which devastated Regina in 1912. Books and online searches filled in more information. That's the thing about disasters, they catch people's attention and there are likely to be written accounts. They might also be the impetus for change in ancestor's lives, such as migration or an alteration in their day to day lives that brought them into contact with different people. I believe my grandfather met the woman he was to marry when he had to move after the cyclone left a path of destruction down the street he lived on.

Big weather events could change the lives of our ancestor but so too could the everyday effects of weather. Did they live in houses that barely contained the inhabitants as most work, even that of the womenfolk, happened outside? What happened when weather made staying outside a misery? Social history shows that the relentless day to day struggle of people living with only the bare necessities to keep them warm and dry during the hardest months of the year could also find this a spur in their quest for a better life. I've seen how one weather event affected my grandfather's life. Perhaps a look at the weather in other ancestors' lives might also add more to their stories